The problem with the name is that Amazon has a product called the Amazon Echo – a futuristic household tool (much like Apple’s Siri) – which answers to the common girls’ name.

But to people named Alexa, it appears the Amazon Echo makes life decidedly frustrating – which is why one dad is debating changing his daughter’s name. Apart from the potential confusion, he’s worried the association with the gadget will cause his daughter to be bullied about it when she’s older.

The dad explains in his post on parenting website NetMums that people make a joke about it every time he tells them her name – which doesn’t bode well for his daughter’s future schooling experience. Unsure about what to do, he asked fellow parents for advice on whether he should change the name.

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“I’m looking for peoples opinions and thoughts on what is a VERY tricky subject.

“We had our first child and named her Alexa, this was just before Amazon decided to release their pointless gadget which it now seems is taking over the world.

“Anyway, our little girl is now approaching 16 months old and is aware of her name and talks extremely fluently, and more times than not when you’re asked what her name is by someone new they make reference to having one at home, or say something similar which is annoying and frustrating.

“Life growing up and at school can be hard enough, so we’re reluctantly considering changing her name to save her years of c*** / bullying / teasing etc.”

Noting that IRL Alexa is almost a year and a half old, parents advised against changing the name. One wrote: “I would not change a child’s name at this stage as it would be very confusing for her.

“However, the next time you get a smart remark about that electronic gadget, you could say that if you had had £5.00 every time someone had said that to you, you would be a very rich man by now… Or that your Alexa is older than Amazon’s and they should have asked you first.”

The general consensus was that the father should speak up when people feel the need to share ‘jokes’ with him about the name. Some members were more blunt and politely admonished the father for being dramatic:

“I wouldn’t change it. I really don’t want to sound rude but I think you may be overreacting a bit. It’s her name, I’d keep it.”

Over-reaction or not, it’s obviously a real concern to this dad. We like the advice of the commenter who noted that the Amazon Alexa will most likely be replaced at some point in the future, in the natural course of technological advancements – so his daughter’s name will be reclaimed then.

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